Thank you to our Guest Contributor Leila Dorari for this wonderful article…..
The social institution of marriage would be perfect were it not for its exact opposite, the institution of divorce.
The sad truth is that many marriages end before “death do us part,” so couples need to be ready for all eventualities.
That is why in most Western countries, including Australia, the signing of a prenuptial agreement has become customary.
By setting a legal boundary between spouses to be and their property, you are both preparing for the worst case scenario and regulating the mutual future as well.
Saying YES to a prenup entails a lot of benefits and here are just some of them.
Think of your children…
One of the reasons people get married is to have children and provide them with a family and a home to grow up in.
However, you need to think of your children if your marriage starts going downhill.
The prenup can help set the amount of alimony and who will be responsible for paying it.
In most cases, this will be the parent who went to work, while the other parent had to stay at home and look after the child/children.
In other cases, the alimony is set in regard to the net salary of both (former) spouses.
Dealing with student loans…
Like the States, Australia is also facing the issue of student loan debts.
As it weren’t bad enough that you or your spouse owe money, when you get married the debt will become shared, won’t it?
This is where a prenup comes into play, resolving the issue whether the debts you bring into the marriage are shared or they remain separate.
If both of you have student loans looming over your head, then you can establish a scheme together with your respective banks to pay them off jointly.
Whatever solution you make, the prenup will clearly delineate what happens to a student loan in case of a divorce.
Fifty-fifty…
Couples who are both entrepreneurs are more likely to earn and create property together.
However, the most common type of property modern couples generate is intellectual property.
A high-end blog or a viral Instagram profile can become the object of a bitter argument for many Australian couples.
That is why getting hold of the best family lawyers in Sydney will help mediate the dispute.
An even better solution is to ask the family lawyers to include in the prenup the distribution of intellectual property in the event of a divorce.
Dirty laundry on social media…
A fairly recent addition to prenuptial agreements is the introduction of a social media section.
This helps regulate what former spouses can share about each other on social media platforms.
In this way, you are legally securing that no dirty laundry from your marriage will make its way on to Facebook or Twitter, where it will stay forever.
Due to the increasing number of social media users, this is something that family lawyers offer unless you two bring up the issue yourselves.
Who gets to pet the pet…
Alimony and custody of your children are serious issues but they might distract you from another custody matter.
Namely, if you two had a pet together, which is a common birthday gift among spouses, then who will get to pet it after divorce?
Believe it or not but most prenups nowadays come with a pet custody plan that both parties agree to in advance.
This is important because a divorce judge will treat your four-legged feline friend as mere property and simply give it to one person.
This can cause a feeling of injustice, so it is far better to make Fido an integral part of the prenup while you’re at it.
Be creative with the prenup…
It might seem odd to put ownership over pets in a legal document but in reality, there are little to no boundaries of what goes into a prenup.
No two couples are the same, so you should legally define what matters the most to you two.
For some, this will be the ownership of a china set but for others, it will be the right to timeshare a cabin in Hunter Valley.
The main logic behind a prenup is better to be safe than sorry.
By saying YES to a prenup you are preparing for the worst case scenario, all the while hoping it never becomes a reality.
Who knows, you two might be laughing over the prenup 50 years from now.